112 Flint's natural histoet. [Book XXXIII. 



in combination with lead* or with galena,® this last being the 

 name given to the vein of lead that is mostly found running 

 near the veins of the silver ore. When submitted, too, to the 

 action of fire, part of the ore precipitates itself in the form of 

 lead,® while the silver is left floating on the surface,^ like oil 

 on water. 



Silver is found in nearly all our provinces, but the finest of 

 all is that of Spain ; where it is found, like gold, in unculti- 

 vated soils, and in the mountains even. Wherever, too, one 

 vein of silver has been met with, another is sure to be found 

 not far off: a thing that has been remarked, in fact, in the case 

 of nearly all the metals, which would appear from this cir- 

 cumstance to have derived their Greek name of "metalla."^ It 

 is a remarkable fact, that the shafts opened by Hannibal^ in 

 the Spanish provinces are still worked, tlieir names being de- 

 rived from the persons who were the first to discover them. 

 One of these mines, which at the present day is still called Bsebelo, 

 furnished Hannibal with three hundred pounds' weight of silver 

 per day. The mountain is already excavated for a distance of 

 fifteen hundred^'' paces; and throughout the whole of this 

 distance there are water-bearers'* standing night and day, 

 baling out the water in turns, regulated by the light of torches, 

 and so forming quite a river. 



The vein of silver that is found nearest the surface is known 



* **Plumbnm nigrum" — "Black lead," literally : so called by the ancients, 

 in contradistinction to "plumbum album," "white lead," our " tin," 

 probably. 



5 Lead ore ; identified with " molybd?ena " in B. xxxiv. c. 53. Native 

 sulphurate of lead is now known as ""galena." See Beckmann's Hist. Inv. 

 Vol. II. p. 211, where this passage is commented upon. 



6 This Beckmann considers to be the same as the "galena" above men- 

 tioned; half-vitrified lead, the " glatte" of the Germans. 



' The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474. 



^ From the words /uer' dXXa, " one after another.'* 



9 It is supposed that these sliafts were in the neighbourhood of Castulo, 

 now Cazlona, near Linares in Spain. It was at Castulo that Hannibal 

 married his rich wife Himilce ; and in the hills north of Linares there are 

 ancient silver mines still known as Zos Tozos de Anibal. 



i'^ A mile and a half. 



^^ The proper reading here, as suggested by Sillig, is not improbably 

 " aquatini," "water-carriers." That, liowever, found in thelNISS. is"Aqai- 

 tani ;" but those wei'e a people, not of Spain, but of Gaul. Hardouin sug- 

 gests tliat " Accitani" may be the correct reading, a people of that name 

 in Spain being mentioned in B. iii. c. 5. 



